Invisible leaders
In Orli Santo’s Exit Ramp artist Noa Charuvi said, “A big part of those works was about being uninformed.… The information we have, as citizens, about what’s actually going on, is always so limited” (“Art and politics: it’s complicated,” Jan. 31).
This phrase, “limited information,” prompted a realization: we have limited or NO information about those leaders directly responsible for the situation in Gaza, e.g., Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority,
Hamas, etc.
Why is their responsibility not called out in any newspaper? What do we see about their stated goals in terms of what they want to do to help their people? Where are reports of responsibility or intention by those leaders for their people’s welfare?
Conclusion: these leaders do not take responsibility for their people’s welfare. In my eyes these leaders are invisible.
Leaders who remain “invisible,” who do not “own the problem,” acknowledge no responsibility. They manage their citizens by being seen as victims of “the other.” They have succeeded in that we do not attend to the underlying cause of the situation: their leaders do not support their people. They do not build infrastructure — instead of schools and hospitals they build tunnels and buy guns. They teach their people to hate. They do not keep their people safe.
Their leaders have succeeded. They have made fools of us all.
Carol B. Shichman
Scotch Plains
comments